Worth the Effort: An Eagle Lost and Found Feature

When Patrick J. Smith (’83) lost his Georgia Southern College class ring 30 years ago on a beach in Florida, he never thought he would see it again. But an odd turn of events proved him wrong and landed the ring back in his possession last year. That story (Lost & Found) is still one of the most widely read in the Georgia Southern magazine archives.

When that unlikely story, spanning decades, was brought to our attention last year, we had no idea a similar tale would surface again, and so quickly. But during the 4th of July weekend, 12-year-old Emily Root fished a GoPro Hero3+ HD camera out of the Chattahoochee River in Helen, Georgia, while on vacation with her family and another improbable search was on.

Emily says they were all playing in the river when she found the camera underneath a rock. After it was recharged, she was thrilled to find the camera still worked and held plenty of clues about the man who possibly owned the lost video camera.

She knew what he looked like, who he was with, what he was doing, and the exact moment the bearded man lost the camera in the water. After finding the GoPro, Emily and her family called Atlanta’s NBC affiliate 11Alive to help rally the social media community to find out who the man could possibly be and how to return the camera, but more importantly, the memories it held.

The response was overwhelming. People admired Emily for her honesty and determination. Strangers offered suggestions and sent in photos of friends and neighbors who they thought it might be. In the end, more than 12,000 shared Emily Root’s story and nearly one million people viewed her posts on social media.

That’s when a series of clues started trickling in. “It kinda looks like my Sociology professor, just a little older and grayer,” Aron Randall wrote on Facebook.

Adam Bossler was more definitive: “The owner of the camera lost on the Chattahoochee River is Nathan Palmer. He’s a lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Georgia Southern University.” Yes, Georgia Southern’s own Professor of the Year. (See his story)

Then, an email came in that confirmed it: “I simply cannot believe that Emily found my camera! I lost it on the river in Helen. I can prove that I am the ‘happy bearded guy’ in the photos. I attached a selfie to this email that I just took (see date/time stamp for authenticity). This is the best and most random thing that’s ever happened to me.”

11Alive then sent the picture to Leah Root, Emily’s mom, and she responded by saying: “Yay, that is definitely him! As a parent the opportunities that we have to teach our children about helping others and taking feelings of others (even when they are strangers) is so precious. She has firsthand experience now that even something small can be very important and that people are always worth the effort!”

Indeed they are.